Tuesday, August 13, 2013

DEADLINE

WEDNESDAY LAST DEADLINE FOR OPPOSITION TO COME TO AN AGREEMENT
Kathmandu, 14 Aug.: Talks resume Wednesday with
opposition parties on their demands to participate in the 19 November elections—Wednesday
is a deadline set
by HJPM to opposition to come to an agreement.
Meanwhile, election commission said the vote can be held by the deadline if
there’s an agreement by 20 Aug..
Less than 100 remain for the vote amid opposition to it by 33 parties.
RSS reports: The High Level Political Committee (HLPC) and the Sanghiya
Lokatantrik Morcha (SLM), a consortium of different political parties, are
close to an agreement on four out of the six demands put forth by the Morcha in
the talks held at the HLPC office Naya Baneshwar today, leaders of both sides
said after the talks.
The HLPC and the Morcha have in principle reached to an agreement on the
demands related to increasing the number of seats of the Constituent
Assembly under the proportional representation system by revising the 25-point
agreement, extending the time for adding names of the missing voters in the
voters' list and not making the HLPC active, HLPC member and UCPN
(Maoist) leader Narayan Kaji Shrestha said.
Shrestha said that agreement has not been reached on the Morcha's demand
that the Chairman of thje Council of Ministers should resign from the post of
Chief Justice and increasing the number of electoral constituencies based on
population.
Morcha spokesperson Prashuram Tamang said the talks were moving
forward on a positive note in a cordial atmosphere and that they have
reached close to an agreement on four out of the six demands put forth by
the Morcha. He added that the next round of talks would be held at 5 p.m.
tomorrow.
Tamang said although the Morcha was positive on taking part in the election,
it has not yet decided on this. The Morcha led by Upendra Yadav comprises eight
different political parties including Madhesi Janadhikar Forum Nepal,
Rastriya Madhes Sanghiya Party, Loktantrik Nagarik Party and the Rastriya
Tharuhat
Party.

The government and the CPN-Maoist and the associated Front, which have been
protesting the election process, have agreed to take forward the talks process.
At a meeting held in Lalitpur today, both the sides agreed to move ahead the
talks and dialogue process to resolve problems on the key issues to make the
election to the Constituent Assembly (CA) a success, saying there was no
alternative to it.
Talking to mediapersons after the meeting, Spokesperson of the government,
Madhav Prasad Poudel, said both the sides agreed to hold the next discussion in
a special way.
Poudel said that today's meeting was of preliminary phase, so they only
learned about the views of the CPN-Maoist and the Front.
He said they urged them to come to next round of talks by forming a small
size committee and added that the CPN-Maoist and the Front also took it in a
positive way.
The CPN-Maoist and the Front submitted the 18-point demands today in course
of talks, Poudel added.
Stating that the main responsibility of the incumbent government was to
conduct the CA election since it was formed for that very purpose, Minister for
Information and Communications, Poudel, said it should be taken as positive
gesture as process of talks was underway focusing the issues.
The first round of talks was held to find the possible ways to be adopted
from the government's side to succeed the CA election declared for November 19
The CPN-Maoist Secretary Dev Gurung said today's talks was focused on
putting forth and hearing each others' demands. He said, "We tabled our
18-point demands and put forth the overall view on behalf the 33-parties.
The government urged to form a small talks team and attend the next meeting.
So, we will do the same as per the government's appeal and take part in the
talks process, next time."
The 18-point demands includes scrapping of four-party mechanism, 11-point
agreement signed between major political parties, 25-point ordinance that was
issued saying to remove the obstacle, dissolving the government led in the
Chief-Justice, and forming election government in political leadership, among
others.
Gurung said they were not the anti-election forces but were for moving ahead
forging national political consensus. The next meeting will be first held with
the High Level Political Mechanism (HLPC) on Wednesday and again with to the
government on Thursday.
The meeting was attended by Minister for Home and Affairs, Madhav Ghimire,
Minister for Information and Communications Paudel, and leaders of 33-political
parties led by CPN-Maoist Secretary, Gurung.
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TOURISM MASTER PLAN FOR PARBAT
Kathmandu, 14 Aug.: A tourism master plan
has been prepared with an objective of developing Parbat district as a tourism
district, RSS reports from Parbat..
The master plan was prepared with the purpose of developing the tourism
sites of the district at a time when the district has not been able to reap the
benefits from tourism to the desired extent though it lies between the two
tourism sites --Pokhara and Myagdi.
The master plan was prepared by the Parbat Development Society, Kathmandu with the support of the District Development
Committee, Parbat, the master plan implementation office and political parties.
It was handed over to the DDC at a function recently.
Chairman of the Society, Prof. Dr. Chandra Bahadur Shrestha handed over the
master plan to Local Development Officer of Parbat, Krishna Prasad Lamsal.
A short-term and long-term tourism plan of the district has been included in
the master plan.
The master plan has proposed to develop three areas as the main tourism
sites and man-made structures under the heading 'other tourism sites'.
There is a target to develop religious tourism sites at Kaligandaki Corridor
and Shrawan Kumar Circuit.
Similarly, the master plan has proposed to develop ancient forts and other
monuments of Parbat district as tourism sites, and the highest
suspension bridge of the country linking Kusma-Gyadi and a mechanical bridge
linking Kusma-Balewa as the centre for domestic tourists.
Shrestha said the master plan has set a target to bring in 10,000 tourists
to the district in five years.
The master plan mentions various possibilities to draw tourists to Parbat
attracting them towards paragliding, rafting and rock climbing, among others.
At a programme organised to handover the master plan, tourism expert Prof.
Dr. Rudra Prasad Upadhyay Regmi said that it was necessary to develop
agriculture, tourism and water resources sectors for the development of the
district.
LDO Adhikari said that the master plan would be a milestone for the tourism
development of the district.
On the occasion, different persons including Acting Chief District Officer,
Bhim Prasad Tiwari, Krishna BK of UCPN (Maoist), President of the Parbat
Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Radha Krishna Karmacharya and focal person of
the master plan taskforce, Chandra Bahadur Chhetri, expressed their views.
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